Summer 2014 Ohio Genealogy News with repositories

The peppy Ohio Genealogy News has information that many researchers will want: detailed information about the Ohio History Connection (formerly Ohio Historical Society) by Shelley Bishop, the Ohio Genealogical Society Library by Tom Neel (in an interview), and the Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center in Fort Wayne, Indiana by me. Those who frequent the center will recognize the cover photo: a sidelong view of its banks of microfilmed city directories from all over.

OGN also has a way of including material of interest well northwest of Toledo and southeast of Marietta -- in this issue, Diane Van Skiver Gagel describes the tortures our 19th-century ancestors went through to be photographed.

Even those few with no Ohio relatives will find useful material here. Join OGS to get in on the action and read OGN on line.




Harold Henderson, "Allen County Genealogy Center: Midwestern Mega-Library," Ohio Genealogy News 45 (Summer 2014): 14-17.


Harold Henderson, "Summer 2014 Ohio Genealogy News with repositories," Midwestern Microhistory: A Genealogy Blog, posted 18 July 2014 (http://midwesternmicrohistory.blogspot.com : viewed [date]). [Please feel free to link to the specific post if you prefer.]

"I" and "we" in genealogy writing

This year's Ohio Genealogical Society conference in Cincinnati sparked some good discussions, including one that came out of Ohio Genealogy News editor Sunny McClellan Morton's Friday morning talk. Like many of us, she's trying to encourage new writers to take up the pen or word processor as the case may be.

I admit to being a bit surprised that there was anything to discuss. There are many kinds of good genealogical writing, and the first person can be effectively wielded in most of them.

. . . Except at the top of the pyramid. In the five most scholarly magazines -- NEHGR, NGSQ, NYGBR, TAG, and The Genealogist -- the first person singular or plural is out of bounds, I think reasonably so. The focus there should be on the methods, the records, and the people being researched -- not on the researcher's false trails and travails. Having journals like this is one of many factors that will make genealogy more respectable as an intellectual endeavor and not just a harmless obsession of geezers. Also, once you get the hang of it, leaving yourself out of the picture actually makes it easier to tell one story, without having to shift back and forth from the story of the past to the story of your attempt to reclaim the past. Scholarly accounts deliberately suppress process details because the logic of proof is often very different from the travelogue of discovery.

But this is not the only way to tell these stories, and it is not always even the best way. For one thing, up-and-coming researchers have a natural hunger for accounts of how it went. A research find can look very different in the heat of battle (or more likely in the courthouse basement) than it does in a polished article. And nothing prevents such accounts from being well-written and well-documented.

So, pretty much everywhere else -- in commercial popular magazines, in trade publications (APG Quarterly), and in quality mid-level publications (such as NGS Magazine, Ohio Genealogy News, and many state publications) -- I would expect good editors to be open to the possibility of using first person to tell a solid genealogical story. (I blogged about a couple here; Sunny has been publishing research travelogues under the heading "Genealogy Journeys" in OGN.)

Many people may find it more natural to write in the first person at first, and I'm in favor of any approach that will get more of us writing (as opposed to dying with file cabinets full of uncommunicated discoveries). But writing WELL in the first person is much harder than it looks, for at least three reasons:

(1) All storytelling and all writing is about selection, and when you write about your own experience you have to do all the selection. You know too much. (In an interview-based article, for instance, both the interviewee and the interviewer filter the direct experience, so that the result of the interview has already been winnowed down considerably from the raw experience, making it easier to craft a readable narrative out of it.) It can be hard to see the forest because you know so much about each individual tree -- but if you tell all, the reader will quit rather than figure it out.

(2) First person can tempt us into careless writing. As beginners we often rely too much on adjectives and adverbs, and on general ones at that. First-person may make it harder to realize that we are emoting vaguely, rather than painting a clear picture.

(3) First person poses a special technical problem in genealogy. We then have at least two separate narratives going: our own research chronology, AND the life we are researching. It takes considerable skill and experience to keep both stories on track, separate, and memorable.

These caveats aside, I think first person opens realms of possibility. Some of the most memorable genealogy or family history books I have ever read use it: Leonard Todd's Carolina Clay: The Life and Legend of the Slave Potter Dave; Martha Hodes's The Sea Captain's Wife: A True Story of Love, Race, and War in the Nineteenth Century; and (in a somewhat different and slightly less documented vein) Ian Frazier's Family. I found them impossible to put down, and well worth rereading and learning from. It's true, these are world-class writers. Few if any of us can use the first-person tool as well as they do, but that is no reason to banish it altogether from our toolbox.




Harold Henderson, "'I' and 'we' in genealogy writing," Midwestern Microhistory: A Genealogy Blog, posted 15 May 2013 (http://midwesternmicrohistory.blogspot.com : accessed [access date]). [Please feel free to link to the specific post if you prefer.]

2013 Ohio Writing Contest!

 The largest state genealogy organization in the country will sponsor its sixth annual writing contest in 2013, open for entries beginning January 1 and closing February 28. Details, rules, and categories are in the Winter 2012 issue of Ohio Genealogy News and on the OGS web site. The print version also includes a lot more detail about how and what to write for the organization's quarterly and the News.

My quick take: Yes, your entry or entries do need to have an Ohio tie-in; top prize is a year's free membership in OGS; and anything more than ten single-spaced pages is too long (some categories must be shorter). Those of us who have been wrestling with Ohio families for years need to get off the dime and write up at least some of them.

I have heard that there are some people who have been tragically deprived of Ohio ancestry. In that case, check out Kimberly Powell's list of 22 genealogy competitions and scholarships at About.com. (If you're wondering whether to let me know that I am in part repeating my post of October 4, yes, I am.) Also, Michael Hait is promising a new list soon.

This issue of OGN also includes the program and information for OGS's April conference in Cincinnati, where I will give one talk at 8 am Friday morning on Indiana research.


 
Sunny Morton and Susan Lee, "How to Write Your Family History...And Publish It With OGS," Ohio Genealogy News, Winter 2012 (43:4): 12-14.


Harold Henderson, "2013 Ohio Writing Contest!," Midwestern Microhistory: A Genealogy Blog, posted 19 December 2012 (http://midwesternmicrohistory.blogspot.com : accessed [access date]). [Please feel free to link to the specific post if you prefer.]

Words from Ohio -- Fall OGN

I learned several things from the Fall 2012 Ohio Genealogy News:

* The Ohio Genealogical Society writing contest will be open during January and February 2013, up to four entries per person. Winners will be published in either OGN or the flagship Ohio Genealogical Society Quarterly, so pay attention to the rules, which reflect their length and formatting requirements. Writers whose  potential subjects evaded Ohio (not an easy thing to do!) should consult Kimberly Powell's listing of writing contests at About.com.

* Aubrey Brown chased a series of scattered records to learn more about the forgotten residents of the Knox County Infirmary, AKA Knox County Poorhouse, AKA Mount Vernon Bible College: two ledgers of monthly expenditures preserved in the county archives; microfilmed newspapers with occasional notes mentioning the place; County Commissioners' Journals; and the US Census. The changeability of the name, the scarcity and dispersion of records, and the value of county commissioners' records are all themes that extend beyond Ohio.

* Shelley Bishop's article on finding, reading, and researching with blogs includes a list of "20 Great Ohio Genealogy Blogs." Chances are you'll find some you didn't know about -- I did.

* Like laws, library acquisition notes are a nifty "secret entrance" to genealogy. Thomas Stephen Neel, who directs the OGS Library, reports that the library has acquired Kenneth Weant's ten volumes of newspaper abstracts covering '49ers who passed through Missouri during the Gold Rush (1849-1853), including of course many Ohioans and other Midwesterners. Researching these folks has much in common with researching infirmary residents, so all help is welcome. The library is also aware that the 20th century is now history, having purchase digitized records of Warren County, Ohio, marriages 1963-1979. As Neel writes, "The time period is after LDS stopped filming and these folks already have grandchildren."

Mostly Midwestern genealogy finds on and off the web

* The summer issue of the Illinois State Genealogical Society Quarterly includes a well-cited article by Charlene Preston Mundy, "Five Ferguson Brothers from Scotland."A bonus for me: ISGSQ is using footnotes instead of the dreaded endnotes.


* As usual, the Ohio Genealogy News is packed with instructional articles of interest. For Summer 2012, I particularly enjoyed:

Chris Staats' "Deed Anatomy 101" with a clever graphic;

Joyce Quigley's "Online Cemetery Research" (interment records!); and

Delores Jones's "My Last Name is Jones (Success with a Common Surname)": "The only way I found my Jones family in the 1930 U.S. census for Mississippi was by reading my late aunt's papers again."


* Whenever you're in a law library, take the opportunity to snoop around. During IGHR at Samford, some sharp-eyed Pennsylvania researchers found an unlikely treasure: county-level court case reports for several counties in Pennsylvania, mostly from the 20th century. Who knew?


* Joe Beine has updated his wonderful index to on-line indexes of death records of various kinds, including indexes for ten Midwestern counties:

in Illinois -- DeKalb, McDonough, Sangamon, and Will;

in Michigan -- Menominee, Oakland, and Wayne;

in Ohio -- Montgomery; and

in Wisconsin -- Barron and Eau Claire.





Charlene Preston Mundy, "Five Ferguson Brothers from Scotland,"Illinois State Genealogical Society Quarterly, vol. 44, no. 2 (Summer 2012): 74-91.

Ohio Genealogy News, vol 43, no. 2 (Summer 2012).

Harold Henderson, "Midwestern genealogy finds on and off the web," Midwestern Microhistory: A Genealogy Blog, posted 26 June 2012 (http://midwesternmicrohistory.blogspot.com : accessed [access date]). [Please feel free to link to the specific post if you prefer.]

Ohio Genealogy News with extended on-line versions!

The excellent genealogy newsmagazine Ohio Genealogy News has made an improvement: in addition to its print publication, it now provides on-line extended versions of two articles in the current issue, one on the Western Reserve and the other on Geauga County.

I know that the Indiana Historical Society's twice-yearly The Hoosier Genealogist: Connections publishes supplemental data on-line, coordinated with articles published in the hard copy.

I wonder why none of the top-line genealogy journals -- all seriously constrained for space by the cost of paper -- have not chosen this route. Is there a downside?

Ohio Genealogy News Winter 2011

"Have You Researched Your Ancestor's Mental Health?" is the cover headline on the new OGS News, the class of the state-level newsletters. Among the contents:

Lisa Long (Ohio Historical Society reference archivist), "Mental Health Records: An Introduction for Researchers" and "Selected List of Patient Records in the Ohio History Center." Don't get your hopes up -- asylum and mental health records are "restricted" no matter how old, according to state law (insert your joke here about the lunatics running the asylum), but there are a variety of workarounds.

Deb Cyprych, "Return of Deaf and Dumb, Blind, Insane and Idiotic Persons in Ohio, 1856" -- a township-level partial census, many of the entries including parents' names.

Susan Zacharias, "Searching the Dead in Stark County: Coroner's Records Online."

Beverly R. Austin and Ronald L. Burdick, "Cleveland Public Library's Genealogy Resources."

Wally Huskonen, "Getting Ready to Research in the 1940 Census," including several tips for identifying enumeration districts as we await its indexing.

Fall 2011 Ohio Genealogy News and NARA M850!

There's always more than you expect in Ohio Genealogy News. The current issue has a lead article by Dan Reigle explaining the Veterans Administration Pension Payment Cards, 1907-1933, National Archives microfilm publication M850. A collaboration between the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne and Internet Archive has digitized these cards. They are browseable, not searchable, but there is a finding aid posted on the Warren County, Ohio, GenWeb project. If you've read this far, you need to join the Ohio Genealogical Society, get a copy of OGN, and peruse Dan's detailed case study of how to use this underpublicized on-line resource.

Ohio Genealogy News Spring 2011

The Ohio Genealogy News -- the genealogy newsmagazine that outdoes some other states' quarterlies -- focuses on Civil War genealogy research this quarter. But I'd say the whole issue is worth it for explaining where to find the Cleveland District Round Table's index to the Cuyahoga County probate record images that FamilySearch has posted only in browseable form.

In other news, Ohio Genealogical Society's 50th annual conference begins later this week in Columbus. See you there!

Ohio Genealogy News Winter 2010

Pound for pound, quarter after quarter, Ohio Genealogy News is the most practically informative genealogy magazine I know of.

The current issue's cover story, "Ohioans in Religious Newspapers," is especially pertinent because so many of us have ancestors who came through Ohio, but something like it could be written for almost any state. But co-editor Deb Cyprych wrote it for Ohio, with descriptions and locations for periodicals associated with almost two dozen denominations: Baptist, Baptist (German), Christian Church (American Christian Convention), Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Church of the Brethren, Church of God, Congregational, Episcopalian, Evangelical Association (German), Jewish, Lutheran, Lutheran (German), Mennonite, Methodist Episcopal, Methodist (German), Methodist Protestant, Presbyterian, Protestant Union, Reformed (German), Roman Catholic, Society of Friends (Quakers), United Brethren in Christ, and Universalist.

Other articles review the holdings of the Columbus Metropolitan Library, the website of the Terrace Park Building Survey (it's a village in Hamilton County), online Hamilton County probate records, and Palatines to America.

Ohio Genealogy News Summer 2010

Ohio Genealogy News can stand up to most states' top-line quarterlies. This quarter features the society's new library (grand opening outside Mansfield July 23) plus:

Tacy Arledge Lewis on "Ohio Tax Lists: Practical Applications" including where to find them;

news of Ohio vital records, including three indexes at FamilySearch Pilot website; and

news of Ohio newspaper digitizations from Logan, Mount Vernon, and Perrysburg.

You really do not want to be without this magazine if you're researching Ohio people.

Good and bad genealogy news in Ohio

Second installment on the fall issue of the Ohio Genealogical Society's Ohio Genealogy News, which comes bearing both good news and bad:

* The Preble County District Library has scanned and indexed county marriage records 1808-1996 and various other historical records.

* Bowling Green State University's Center for Archival Collections includes manuscripts with online finding aids; local government records including hunting and fishing licenses, poll books, tax lists, and peddlers licenses, plus online indexes for Henry County 1853 plat books and Wood County probate estate case files 1820-1870; and online databases of Great Lakes vessels including photographs.

* OGS will sponsor its third annual writing contest (750-5000 words), accepting entries in January and February 2010. This is a great place to jump-start your genealogy writing career and get some critiques. If you're doing a lot of work in Ohio, you can submit up to two entries in each of four categories -- eight total.

Bad news: the Ohio Historical Society's archives and library will be open only on Thursdays during 2010 and the first quarter of 2011. Library hours will be reduced at the Hayes Presidential Center and at Columbus Metropolitan as well.

Methodology Monday with the Fall Ohio Genealogy News

The new issue of Ohio Genealogy News is so packed with information I need two blog posts to cover it. In the methodology department, we have:

* Cross-check Your Sources: Dan Reigle, co-editor of the Ohio Civil War Genealogy Journal, amplifies on an earlier article about the Veterans Grave Registration cards, showing how the cards are valuable sources but they do contain errors, and need to be cross-checked against other military records, "as with any thorough genealogical study," using the example of Garnett B. Adrain. More likely his name was Adrian, and he served not one but two separate hitches in the Civil War.

* Know Your History: Neil H. Elvick describes land and property research in Gallia County, which has two different sets of original land records, from the Ohio Company in the east, and from the US government in the western half.

* When Indexes Fail: Marianne Szabo describes how browsing the Cuyahoga County Birth Returns at Footnote.com enabled her to find a Booms relative. Searching alone had failed, because the data was indexed under the name Boomer.

Ohio Genealogy News Spring 2009

Somehow the spring issue of Ohio Genealogy News got stuck at the bottom of my pile, which is too bad because it's a goodie:

"Armchair Sleuthing in the Internet Age: Reconstructing Family Stories," by Gail G. Whitchurch

"The Western Reserve Historical Society Library -- An American Family History Research Center," by Ann Sindelar. Besides library materials including the top periodicals, this Cleveland repository also boasts over 5000 manuscript collections, including Civil War and Shaker materials and papers of "local historians Charles Whittlesey, Joel Blakeslee, Alfred Mewitt and Winifred Wolcott," and Marion Turk's Channel Islands Genealogical Papers on "several hundred Channel Islands families from their earliest settlement to the 20th century." More on these resources next week.

"Cemetery Chronicles" from Trumbull, Henry, and Fairfield counties, by Lolita (Thayer) Guthrie

"George Washington's Valet Honored in Champaign County Cemetery," by Doris Hayden Gorgas

"Diocese of Toledo Parish Records and Ohio Tax Records Online" at FamilySearch Labs

Ohio Genealogy News on township records

Ohio Genealogy News isn't the big-name magazine of the Ohio Genealogical Society (that would be the Quarterly, of course), but it could stand comparison with most states' flagship publications. Lately it's been zeroing in on under-used record types with good nuts-and-bolts methodology articles. This month it's township records. If you're not an OGS member and can't afford to add another membership, check out a library copy. Contents include:

"Digging for Gold in Town and Township Records," by Tom Neel

"Township Records -- An Overlooked Treasure," by Diane V. Gagel

"History of Townships in Ohio"

Next April is the OGS's 50th anniversary conference in Huron (Erie County), with Ohio-born Ian Frazier (author of the incomparable Families) as keynote speaker. This issue highlights north-central Ohio research options nearby, including the Firelands Historical Society, Sandusky Library and Archives Research Center, and Clarence S. Metcalf Great Lakes Maritime Research Library in Vermilion. I had no idea this last place existed, let alone that they have "over 125 linear feet of manuscript materials such as diaries, journals, and ships' logs," plus the full run of Inland Seas (quarterly journal of the Great Lakes Historical society) and bound copies of Marine Review 1884-1931. It's all about the history of Great Lakes vessels and shipping, so the genealogy relevance is mainly for those with a lake connection somewhere.

Dang. We drive through northern Ohio on a regular basis. It's going to be hard to make any time if I have to stop at a repository every few miles!

Fall Genealogy News from Ohio

In a timely manner, the fall issue of Ohio Genealogy News features Ohio's unxpected riches in voting records.

"Ohio Voter Records," by Deb Cyprych, gives an overview of legal milestones, followed up with specific resource lists:
"Poll Books in Ohio Genealogy" in five different repositories.
"Quadrennial Enumerations of Eligible Vioters, 1800-1907"
"1907 Cleveland Voter Registration Index" on line at the Western Reserve Historical Society.

"NewspaperArchive.com: Free Access for OGS Members," by Mark E. Schmidt

"Newspaper Collections at the Ohio Historical Society," by Elizabeth L. Plummer

"Cemetery Chronicles," by Lolita (Thayer) Guthrie

"Using Footnote -- A Powerful Internet Research Tool," by Brent Morgan

"Check the Original!" by Harold Henderson (yes, it's me), an example of the surprises that await when you go behind the transcribed 1880 census and look at the original record, along with a smidgen of Scofield genealogy.

Ohio Genealogy News spring issue

OGS always has a lot going on:

"Ohio, the Gateway to the West: Genealogy Resources at the Columbus Metropolitan Library," by Russ Pollitt

"Ohio Death Certificate Images Online, 1908-1953," by Deb Cyprych

"2009 OGS Conference Call for Papers"

"Cemetery Chronicles," by Lolita (Thayer) Guthrie

"More Accessible Resources in the Cincinnati Public Library's Genealogy Department," by Patrician Van Skaik -- including an RSS feed, the River History Collection, "the leading African American research collection in the nation," and digitized Cincinnati city directories for many of the years 1819-1866.